MOJAVE DESERT, CA -- For the fourth time, six public lands livestock grazing
permittees must move their cattle on desert public lands to protect the
threatened desert tortoise from starvation and trampling. About a quarter
million acres of desert habitat will be protected this spring by the move.
Under the terms of the California Desert Conservation Area (CDCA) court
order, Interior Secretary Gale Norton and her Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) must ensure cattle do not graze on nearly a quarter million acres
of desert tortoise habitat from March 1 - June 15.

Scientists have shown that livestock grazing removes
important food plants for tortoises, leaving them with a less nutritious
diet which makes them more likely to develop diseases or die. This is
also true in wetter years, which are important to provide tortoises with
a nutrient bounce to off-set drought stress.

BLM's recently approved Northern and Eastern Colorado
(NECO) Plan and Northern and Eastern Mojave (NEMO) Plan roll-back tortoise
protections by allowing livestock grazing on 252,000 acres where it was
previously restricted. Conservationists plan a legal challenge to this
soon for violations of the Endangered Species Act and other laws. For
a copy of the notice of intent to sue, please contact Daniel R. Patterson.

Livestock are very damaging to the Mojave desert,
which did not evolve with large grazing animals. Cattle are especially
devastating, trampling and eating everything in sight and starving tortoises
and other wildlife. says Daniel R. Patterson, Desert Ecologist with
the Center in Idyllwild, who formerly worked with BLM in the Mojave Desert.
The agreement provides moderate relief for wildlife in fall and
spring, but BLM should have ordered livestock removed from desert public
lands long ago. He reasons, Seasonally moving cattle so tortoises
can eat and mate is not a lot to require of permittees who are using the
public lands for private gain.

BLMs lack of enforcement of the tortoise conservation
measure remains a problem. Last spring and fall the agency witnessed cattle
illegally grazing in closed areas on public lands at least twenty times
on six allotments in the Barstow, Ridgecrest and Palm Springs areas, but
failed to follow up with required enforcement actions such as fines, extension
of the grazing restrictions, herd size reductions, impoundment of cattle
and possible cancellation of ranchers public lands grazing privileges.
Violations impacting riparian areas in Afton and Rattlesnake Canyons were
a particular repeated problem. Conservationists consider this lax approach
a violation of the court order governing desert grazing, and may seek
contempt charges against BLM managers if violations are ignored again.

In August 2001, after two weeks of hearings in Barstow,
U.S. Interior Dept. Judge Harvey C. Sweitzer - acting with Secretarial
level authority - upheld BLMs science-based arguments for endangered
species protection and recovery, by seasonally limiting damaging livestock
grazing on nearly 500,000 acres of fragile public lands habitat within
the 11.5 million acres administered by BLM in the CDCA. Since agreeing
to and arguing for the livestock restrictions, BLM has inexplicably issued
plans that favor livestock production by dumping the important tortoise
protections. To protect the tortoise, conservationists are challenging
the Bush Administrations anti-environmental roll backs.

All the cattle currently on these allotments
could probably be better accommodated on the President's Texas ranch than
on the Mojave desert where tortoises need annual plant growth for survival,
said Patterson. Tortoises cannot and should not have to compete
with animals that have mobility and appetites of cattle.

The carefully negotiated CDCA grazing settlement partially
implements the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services 1994 Desert Tortoise
Recovery Plan recommendations for livestock reduction and removal from
critical habitat. It is scientifically shown that livestock mow down spring
and fall annual plants essential to tortoise health and reproduction.
The hoofed livestock also trample tortoises and their burrows, killing
tortoises or wrecking their homes. The CDCA settlement between BLM, the
Center, Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
was negotiated to aid desert tortoise recovery by preventing grazing on
285,381 acres of critical and 213,281 acres of essential tortoise habitat
during the biologically critical spring and fall seasons, but 252,000
acres have had their protection removed by new BLM plans which roll-back
conservation. The agency further agreed to prohibit grazing year-round
on an additional 11,079 acres of active allotments.

The stipulated agreement also prohibits authorization
of any sheep grazing on 951,953 acres and completely removes cows from
43,596 acres of desert tortoise habitat. The BLM is also prohibited from
permitting cattle grazing on 394,835 acres of currently ungrazed endangered
species habitat.